The Galleria Lia Rumma is pleased to present the exhibition of Marina Abramović: With Eyes Closed I See Happiness which
opens on 20 March 2012 in the Milan gallery. The exhibition is the
second of the major events which the artist, the pioneer and key figure
of Body Art, will present in the city. On the previous day, she will
present The Abramović Method at the PAC museum.
Both events are new projects – and, indeed, the phrase “an artist
should never repeat him/herself” is part of her “Artist’s life
Manifesto” – the first to be presented after the titanic performance The Artist is present,
given at MoMA in New York in 2010. For three months, each day and for
seven hours a day, the artist presented herself to the public at MoMa by
remaining seated, motionless and absolutely silent, opposite a chair
that never remained empty. Thousands of people took turns to sit on the
chair and an extraordinary flow of energy was created just through the
power of the gaze.
In her performances in the seventies, Marina Abramović subjected
herself to numerous trials of physical and psychic endurance,
challenging every limit and taboo linked to the body, while today the
artist is interested in the concept of duration and a more intense
relationship with her public. House With the Ocean View, Seven Easy Pieces and The Artist Is Present provide clear proof of this evolution which is now undergoing a further transition.
This is the sense in which the works performed at the Lia Rumma Gallery
should be interpreted. The title of the exhibition, which also
describes the new state of the artist, comes from a rewarding and
regenerating method of exercise: With Eyes Closed I See Happiness.
It is an attainable truth which reveals infinite possibilities in its
implied invitation to look inside yourself, leaving the world far
behind.
The importance of this practice is emphasized by a group of sculptures
placed on glass pedestals, made from a plaster cast of the artist’s head
covered in quartz crystals. A series of large photographic works
contribute to the atmosphere and illustrate the simple and unadorned
gestures made by the artist to elevate her spirit.
These silent and exhausting trials of ecstatic contemplation are
designed to reach a state of equilibrium, to give importance to things,
and to perceive their heat and energy. The empty and emptied space which
surrounds the figure of Abramović in the photographs symbolically
fixes the action and amplifies the perception of it. The emptiness is
there to condense the need for clarity which is the necessary prelude to
any type of concentration.
Because only in the dense and illuminated time of meditation and in the
active truce of silence is it possible to make space and attain the
essence.

Marina Abramović was born in Belgrade in 1946. She lives and works in
New York, where she is preparing to open the Marina Abramović Institute
for Preservation of Performance Art. In December 2002 she presented the
exhibition Video Portrait Gallery 1975-2002 at the Lia Rumma Gallery in Milan and in 2004 she gave the performance Cleaning the mirror
at the Lia Rumma Gallery in Naples. She received the Leone d’Oro at the
1997 Venice Biennale. During her career, which spans almost 40 years,
she has exhibited and given performances in leading museums throughout
the world. These include the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1985),
the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, (1990), the Neue National Galerie,
Berlin (1993), the Guggenheim Museum, New York, (2005), MoMA, New York,
(2010), and the Garage Art Center, Moscow (2011). Last summer the
Manchester International Festival and the Teatro Real Madrid presented
the theatre project The life and the death of Marina Abramović, directed by Bob Wilson.